Guest Book

Write a few words in our Guest Book to let us know what Atlas Shrugged has meant to you. Submissions will be posted within a few days.

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Unequivocally, the greatest book ever written to date.

The most logical book I have ever read plus it was entertaining and very interesting.

read this book when I was a teenager and in high school in the late 1950’s .. set my life in the right direction. Yes, should be required reading for all American high schools. The most important book ever published. Thank you Ayn Rand

I have given out copies of Ayn Rands’ books for graduation gifts for years. Atlas Shrugged is the single most important book I have in my house. Thank You Ayn for stating what so many of us beleive.

Until I read this book I thought that perhaps there were only a few sane people left in this world as it falls to bits around us. My husband and I are moved by the story and the underwritten lessons with the same moral code we’ve always followed. At 24 years of age it has inspired me to stick up for what I believe in and move past all those who refuse to think for themselves. I wish this was required reading in all High Schools as it might actually provide us some hope for the future.

Thank you Ayn Rand, you’ve moved me more than you will ever know!!

I had only one regret after i finished reading this book . . . . . . Damn, Why din’t i read it before ? That way , I could have made better decisions in the part of my life which belongs to the interval previous to the event of my reading Atlas Shrugged, which was the most enjoyable and enriching experience ! I would say, My life has two parts to it, The life before me reading Atlas Shrugged and the second is the one after the fortunate event. I had taken decisions based on pure reason and intellect prior to my reading Atlas Shrugged too, But I could’nt see the validation as most of the others din’t do it that way, Now, that I’ve read the novel, I know what i did and am still doing is right !

If every Bible, Tamil, Tora, and Koran were replaced by Atlas Shrugged, the world would be a much better place.

Reading Atlas Shrugged is the most selfish thing you will ever do, and you will never regret it.

I was introduced to Ayn Rand’s works shortly after graduating from USAF cadet pilot training in 1958, having overheard an instructor raving about The Fountainhead to a student pilot. That tells you something about my present age. After Fountainhead, which I literally carried around with me until I finished it, I read Atlas Shrugged two years later. That did it! I was in another world, one which I felt was the proper one, the achievable one. Over the next several years I studied everything written by Ayn Rand, rereading the novels so many times I’ve lost track. I used to pride myself in knowing how many times I’d read each of her many books, both fiction and non-fiction. But now it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I now comprehend her philosophy of Objectivism and apply it to my daily life. I am not a philosopher, but I can think. And I know that if the human species is to flourish, individual by individual, then it will be due to the extent of their understanding and acceptance of the principles of Objectivism. In short, no other book has been written with such a potential for human survival, be it on the cultural level or as an individual. I cannot imagine not having read this book (six times so far).

Reading this book literally changed my life. It was given to me by my mentor and I am so thankful. It helped me to recognize the looters in my own life, and then get away from them. I now choose to surround myself with like-minded individuals and fellow Atlas readers. We may be few, but we are strong!

I LOVE John Galt

When I read this book, shortly after reading the Fountainhead, I began to realize who I was and to actually put a name and a direction to everything I have been. I was born and wired to be an objectivist, I just didn’t know the whole story until reading. I recommend this book, but I also know that there are people who just won’t “get” it.

This was the next book I was looking out for after reading Fountainhead. It has influenced me the most. Now life seems to be worth living and fighting for all the values I hold. Freedom of thought is priceless and one can appreciate that only after reading atlas shrugged and fountainhead.

this book has shifted my paradigm of thinking

It is a good book and a good guide to life.

The words “I couldn’t put it down” were never more true for me as they were when I first read Atlas in 1978. There have been other books before and since that I’ve enjoyed and even loved, but nothing else has “meant” more to me. The Fountainhead too. Talk about words jumping off the page.

Also, when I read or watch the news, it seems as it has seemed for a long time that we are living in the pages of Atlas Shrugged. At the risk of overstatement, Miss Rand might be prophetic in her work. I’m still amazed thirty years later.

John Santello

“Atlas Shrugged” might be the most politically prophetic novel ever written.

nothing to tell abt this its excellent,just mindblowing

A great message and inspiration. Just sorry that I didn’t read the book earlier in my life. I have recommended it highly to my 4 boys who are in college and will certainly incourage my 5 year old daughter to also read this classic.

The present “liberal fascist” politics we struggle with here is disturbing. We need to certainly move more toward the “Objectivism” of Rand and the reason of Thomas Payne.

Who is John Galt?

I first read Atlas Shrugged 10 years ago, while touring with the New York City Opera Company. Ever since, i have reread it once a year, not only finding new aspects each time, but recharging my own artistic and professional drive. Congrats on keeping this amazing piece of literature alive and well

I was introduced to Atlas Shrugged by a friend. It is certaintly the most important book I’ve read in my life. I just felt the relieve of being free to believe that being productive is no synonym of selfishnes. I believe this book reflects most of the discrimination we see among our world today against those who carry the world with their productiveness. This great novel was also writen with a highly capturing prose, which leads the reader into the characters’ world, making us feel like one of them and helping us to understand the world’s movement in it’s true essence. To Ayn Rand, thank you for changing our lifes. Atlas Shrugged is the book I will always recommend.

Every time I read Atlas Shrugged (I’ve lost count how many times now), I read something I didn’t notice before, or I suddenly “get” scenes and dialog that seemed uninteresting or puzzling before. What an amazing and wonderful book !

I was introduced to ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by a millionaire who told me it’s the only book he ever read twice. I now know why! The book is a compelling read and the parallels with today’s focus on political correctness and positive discrimination tells me that we’re in great danger in the UK today of living out the book with all of it’s dire consequences. Only yesterday I heard a senior NHS manager apologise for appointing a man rather than a women to an all male Board. ‘The man was the best candidate,’ she said, ‘but if both had been equal, we’d have appointed the woman.’ We also have the National Union of Teachers calling for the nationalisation of Britain’s private schools because it’s not fair that the kids there stand a better chance. I lead an anti-stigma project and also provide ‘business support’ to UK charities seeking to develop social enterprise. I know the paradox of equality, that is: the more you seek to include and be fair, the more you actually highlight the differences and exclude. Atlas Shrugged ends with the lights going out in New York. Let’s not let that happen in London!

Robert Ashton

Atlas Shrugged is more than a novel; it is the founding document of what will be the third American revolution. The first revolution founded our nation; the second revolution, the Civil War, extended the principles of the first revolution to men of all races; and the third revolution will be the liberating document for all mankind.

Hey, great web site!

I was inspired to read the novel in 1992 after listening to my neighbor talk about it. I purchased the huge hard cover and read it while passing the time as a night watchman. John Galt is a safety net.

I’ll read Atlas Shrugged again.

Atlas Shrugged is the most powerful novel I have ever read. I read it in 1959 and it verified what I intuitivly knew to be true. I have recommended it to every reader I know throughout my journey through life.

Atlas Shrugged and Objectivism in general confirmed for me what I seemed to know subconsciously: That altruism is not the good that the world claims it to be. Ayn Rand’s philosophy clarified many of my core beliefs and corrected many of the errors I had picked up along the way. I’m still trying to understand it completely but it was the first time I’d read any philosophical works that made complete sense. I wish I had come across her works as a young man. I am overjoyed at all the effort the Ayn Rand Institute is exerting to expose Atlas Shrugged to young people through books for schools and essay contests.

Reading Atlas Shrugged is a moving and eye-opening experience. Having finished it, you understand so much more not only about how to live the most satisfying and productive lifestyle you can, but also about human nature and WHAT motivates people to do the crazy, irrational things they often do. I found some sections of the book to be so powerful and emotionally draining that I would often lay in bed at night thinking about them for hours. My best suggestion to those who refuse to read the book based on their own personal prejudices or what they’ve heard others say is: pick it up anyway. It’s a beautifully written story that gives you a lot to think about. It may even change your life, as it has for thousands throughout the years.

I first read Atlas Shrugged six years ago. At that point, it was just another edition to be devoured in what had become a hunger for anything and everything written by Ayn Rand. Although I have only reread it as a story twice, I have probably reread it, in bits and pieces, ten times.

After an instance when I had sought it’s guidance - which is at a premium over Ayn Rand’s non-fiction because of it’s simultaneous treatment of both intellect and emotion - I have often felt like I had had a religious experience. Being an atheist, it took me a long time to accept the fact that my constantly coming back to the novel for the reassurance it provided was not a religious-like weakness on my part, but a strength of committment to what I know to be right. This novel, if truly appreciated and understood, posseses a power on par with all of the sacred texts of the world’s religions, but with a pleasant twist: The truth of it’s message.

Before reading “Atlas Shrugged” I always felt very guilty about my relative success when compared to my humble background. Now, I realize that everything I achieved was do to my hard work and the sweat of my brow. I have nothing to be ashamed of. Thanks Ayn.

may the best within us guide and bless all who visit this site.

When I was in my early twenties (early 70’s) a mentor paid me one hundred dollars to read and then discuss this novel with him. That discussion lasted decades. I now have introduced “Atlas Shrugged” to several others but the cost has gone to two hundred. Simply a great book which had a great influence on me.

When i was young, I was very logical and also very frustrated with the prevailing philosophy, or lack there of, of my family which was mostly Southern Baptist influenced.

At a flea market in 1997, I bought a copy of ‘1984’ for 25 cents because I liked the title. It awakened me and two years later read Atlas Shrugged. I knew at once that what I had found would change my life and I became a better man for it. Thanks Ayn Rand. I owe most to you.

This has been a book that I have read over and over and with each new reading I have discovered things that was missed in the last one. I started reading Ayn Rands works about 15 years ago and through reading the ideas presented have found that I am not a un-feeling person but one who feels things that are important to me and not what others think I should feel

Atlas Shrugged let me know I was not alone in this world, that there were others who felt the same as I, and shared in my horror at the direction our world is going. To see my feelings put into print, to share the reading of this book with others gave me a small measure of hope.

Reading this book changed my life more profoundly and completely than I could ever have imagined. Ayn Rand was a true visionary - someone that seems to have possessed an insight more clear and true than exists in today’s world. She is someone that, above all others, I would have loved to sit with for a cup of coffee and a conversation.

This novel is the single greatest productive achievment in the history of mankind. It is the product of Miss Rand’s unbreached commitment to reason, her unwavering dedication to the purpose of her writing and her absolute fidelity to the task of achieving her own moral perfection.

Miss Rand said that she would preface her work with the phrase, “To the glory of man”. Then let us take our cue from her and declare the purpose of this web site to be, “To the glory of Ayn Rand”.

One often hears the old cliche, “this book changed my life.” Well if there ever was a life changing book then it is Atlas. It in fact is one of the few books that has the ability to change one’s morality in profound ways. Normally when one claims that a book has changed their life, it has really not. They might haved changed places and have a new view, but their fundamental premises are still there. Not so with Atlas, everything changes unless you are already familiar with the ideas. It is the ultimate tribute to the imagination of man.

Excellent new website. I have found it most helpful in directing friends to the ideas of Ayn Rand. Thank you!

Thank you for this additional web page to celebrate the works of Ayn Rand. Ms Rand’s philosophy has made dramatic changes to my life. I am not sure how I can every explain just how good it is to destroy those society shackles that trapped me over the years.

Thanks for putting this site online.

Any news about the film?

I was too young when I read Atlas Shrugged for the first time but something about it stuck with me. Over the years I’ve read it over and over finding new insight into the story, its philosophy and myself. If you love this book, buy and extra copy to give away.

Simply put, it changed my life—for the better. Wish I read it when I was in high school 40 years ago. Ayn ranks right up there with Tom Paine among my most important mentors.

it is a book about love

I first read Atlas Shrugged when I was 22, 28 years ago while making patrols onboard a submarine. It provided me with the means to put into words what I had always thought about our country and the people that influence it. It has provided me with an inner strength that has helped me throughout my life. I’ve read it several times cover to cover and some excerpts many more times. I also listen to it occasionally in an audio version on my ipod. It has been a moral guide for me most of my adult life.

Great site!

very much enthusiastic about literature of aynrand, please send me additional book about atlas shrugged

An excellent site. Congratulations!

Atlas Shrugged is far more than a book; it’s implications are far more reaching than words. It is a map to man’s ultimate goal. All men pursue happiness, no matter the level of freedom or education. Every decision, no matter the outcome or the humanity, is to achieve a level of happiness. This book is a must for anyone who wishes to move beyond the mediocrity enveloping their world. Atlas Shrugged has been an important tool toward my becoming a happier person, really, in becoming a person. Go, Dagny, go!

Atlas Shrugged gave me a conherent philosophy. Although I spent years wandering in it, around it, and away from, I have returned to it as the only coherent philosophy I’ve found. In that sense, it is a Rock of Gibralter.

I return to it for inspiration all the time. With age and perspective, I relish Ayn Rand’s spirit as expresssed in Atlas Shrugged more than ever. I’ve been able to stand for myself and what I know to be right in a way I could never have stood without her life and works.

Thank you so much for mounting this website.

I read Atlas Shrugged in the early 1960s. I read it again a few years ago. Although I took different things away from the novel from both readings, It still amazes me how important ideas can be wrapped around a great story.

Saved my life. Popular Christian morality is often summed up in the bumper sticker “what would Jesus do?” The ultimate answer to that question is to die a martyr. This philosophy is the root of many problems in the world today.

I am happy adopter of Objectivism. Life has more meaning and a whole lot less pain and disappointment.

When I first read the book I was not mature and aware enough to hear most of its message. I read it again nearly a decade later and after becoming self-employed. It was an enlightenment for my mind that continues to grow every year. It’s hard to imagine anything that could more profoundly affect my way of understanding the world than by reading Atlas Shrugged and reading deeper into the ideas of Objectivism. For those ready and able to truly read the book and think about its implications it promises to be a life-altering experience. From business to science, from parenting to education, from economics to politics, the philosophy of Objectivism provides you with the tools to make rational conclusions and decisions to better make your way through life on Earth.

I first read Atlas Shrugged as a 27 year old that did not feel that I completely harmonized with the standard teachings of society, but could not at the time rationalize the reasonings as to why. This book at once helped me to feel not alone - and intensely proud of the uniqueness that made me an individual. Rather than wearing the badge of this sense of feeling “different” with solemnity and shame, this badge is now worn with honor.

My first reading was from my wife reading the whole book to me nights on the phone while I lived 1000 miles away. What a gift. Atlas has given me the moral structre to see, to hear, to examine my premises. . . .It saved my productive life over 45 years ago when I was 35. If I owned the country Atlas would be taught in 4 sections all through highschool. It is more American that hotdogs or the 53 Chevy. Bless your work!

This book, this author, and her philosphy have have had quite a profound impact on my life and my thinking. I am very excited to see a website dedicated to Atlas Shrugged. I am looking forward to the new and innovative types of content that I anticipate will be posted here.

The greatest book ever written! It saved my life.

Atlus Shrugged has become the yardstick for life. Whenever I am faced with a moral decision, I remember the book and am able to take the right decision with full knowledge that it is the right one and that it is going to make me happy eventually.

Atlas Shrugged was, first of all, a very entertaining novel. It’s entertaining enough that it held my attention far more fully than most, in spite of its length. I read it for the first time in 1965, and it caused a thorough evaluation of my not-fully-consciously-held philosophy and led me toward many changes, all for the better.

The examination continues to this day. I still reread Atlas Shrugged about every year or so.

Atlas Shrugged articulated all which in my heart I knew, yet never could express.

[L]et us know what Atlas Shrugged has meant to you.

Life.

I read the novel eight years ago and enjoyed it so much I decided to read it again. I especially like how the style of the novel has similarities to classics by Victor Hugo; at least, in my opinion. The pirate is my favorite character. Great book, great author. One of my favorites!

Having grown up on a staple diet of world literatures ranging from existentialism, Nihilism to this day’s Post modernism, I always thought that life was something more than this.Life cannot be just mere existence or survival or hollowness.

However, Early River Valley civilizations and later the Greek civilization, works of Victor Hugo or Aristotle did make sense to me so much then but I just couldn’t define it what was it that had a spell on me.Why I liked to read the early human’s strides so much and why I liked Industrial revolutions and Rennaissance and Technological advances.What drew me to those than the wars and Battles and politics etc.

Then chanced upon to read Atlas Shrugged and I suddenly could fill all the jigsaw puzzles with all their missing links. I could fill the gaps by reading Atlas Shrugged.Everything now fell in place. I had the notion, Atlas Shrugged confirmed it.

All along, I knew my potential and worth but then I thought why I do not get acknowledged ever? Atlas Shrugged told me to acknowledge ME first and the world will follow suit and so I withdrew from where my services were availed with out any recognition value wise.I withdrew and then they knew what I was worth of..now I exact my returns in the same value what they offer me.

I have known that what motion is, productivity is and living is.I now live the way I want to and I am not ashamed of it with any unearned guilt imposed by my family or friends.They do not flutter me anymore.

Atlas Shrugged has taught me to make my life unforgettable in my own eyes and hence I am living with each breath of mine.

A salute to Ayn Rand from June Nandy.

This book had a great impact on my life in the sense that after reading it, I realized that there were other people who thought and felt like I did. I guess it gave me sense of belonging and understanding. Atlas Shrugged expanded my views, as well as confirming my beliefs.

I have truely loved and read Atlas Shrugged so many times that I am truely an objectivist. I spent many years by myself when I was young and fell on Fountainhead by accident and read and reread it so many times that my philosophy I am sure is mostly the rich characters in the Ayn Rand books. They all of them are so rich and full of one relying on ones self and so through my life my one core thought has been always be true to ones self. I am so thrilled to find this site and will be a visitor often. THe real great thing is I have a young friend who asked me about Ayn Rand and it is with great pleasure I turn her over to here.

This book validated my sense of life and reality. At the same time it clarified every aspect of what it means to be human and good. I have since shared it with everyone in my life who I value and in whom I see the potential for greatness.

Atlas Shrugged made me know that I was not alone in the world - after falling in love with Howard Roark in high school. I read Atlas Shrugged and loved those people. But I did not understand the philosophy. I remember searching through all of the Ayn Rand books in my college bookstore, looking for an insert for people who wanted to know more about Miss Rand’s philosophy, which was put into the novels in the mid 60s, and not finding it. I did not know where to look to learn more. However, I did search out people who loved the novels, and learned from them about the philosophy.

I met my husband at Dr. Peikoff’s taped Logic lectures in St. Louis in the 70s.

Because of my pursuit of trying to learn about the principles of Objectivism, and to live by those principles, I am living a life I love and am proud of.

This website is truly a gift to any rational person searching for what is right and I think, in time, it will help change our culture.

Thank you, everyone that had anything to do with this site. And most of all, thank you, Miss Rand and Dr. Peikoff and The Ayn Rand Institute. You changed my life.

This is my third reading (and third copy) of this incredible book. Each read has meant something more, as I’ve aged and matured. Excellent, EXCELLENT read. Top of my list. Recommending it to everyone I know.

Atlas Shrugged opened my eyes

I will live my life for none nor ask any to live theirs for me.

I first read Atals Shrugged when I was 16 years old. I am now 60. It took me all summer to read it because I was working two 40 hour per week jobs, not because I had to, but because I wanted to learn and create.

The day after I finished reading it and could not return to the story, I felt that I had lost my friends. They where no longer a part of my daily life. I then realized that they were actually a part of me. The principles contained in this manuscript had become the principles that I would use to guide my life. I realized that my success in life was not dependent upon others, but upon my own will to succeed.

I have used these lessons to guide my life ever since. I am thankful for Ms. Rand for being a shining light and teaching me these most valued lessons. They have never failed me.

This book should be required reading for all students.

If only I had been reading this in high school. This is classic and timeless.

If you read this book you will know the liberal and how to combat him.

Atlas Shrugged and the philosophy of Objectivism that underlies it have completely remade my life for the better.

For all my adult life I had known there was something wrong in the world and had searched for something better. I found it in Ayn Rand’s ideas.

If you believe ideas are important, that your life has value, that your ability to reason is your most valuable tool, and you have never read Atlas Shrugged; you have just found your home for the very first time.

I read Atlas when I was 19 years old - a recommendation from my father - and it absolutely changed my life. At that time I held similar morals and values to those of Dagny and Hank, and consequently already practiced many parts of the Objectivist philosophy, but the book reaffirmed, clarified, organized, and put a name to all my thoughts, insights, and actions. It was only after reading Atlas that I truly understood the unlimited capacity and power I have as an intelligent, reasoning, free-willed human being. I am proud to say I get great joy every day out of finding ways to fill and expand my own personal capacity for happiness, knowledge, and love.

When I was 23 years old I participated in some online chat sessions, blogs, and instant message groups dedicated to Ayn Rand and her work, and I met a brilliant young man, full of truth and integrity, who became my husband 2 years later. Together we continue to find inspiration in Rand’s philosophy and in the teachings found in Atlas Shrugged.

We are confident that when our lives end, we will never have any regrets, and we will never look back and wonder what could have been if we had chosen to make ourselves happy every day along the way. For us, life is truly great and Atlas Shrugged will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Hi! I’m a college student. Atlas shrugged has made a great influence in my life. It made me change the way I look at the world and the people living in it. I heard about Ayn rand when I was in High school. People used to say that ”The Fountainhead” changes a person’s thoughts. Now I know it for sure.

As you have heard many times from others, this book changed my life. Though I am no John Galt, at least not yet, this book simplified into a clear concise manner many aspects of what I had already truly believed but had never been able to speak of in a clear manner.

One of the only novels I carry on a constant basis. It is almost funny; everything Rand wrote of with big business crumpling under the weight of its own rules and regulations is so prevalent in the economy today. How the government wants to fix the real estate downfall by increasing rule and creating more laws. If only someone could have foreseen this?

After reading The_Fountainhead, I knew I’d found a kindred spirit in AR, though I had no idea of the magnitude of the author’s spirit at that point. As I read Atlas I kept thinking, “I might have written some of this. . .She thinks the way I do!” I kept looking back at the original publication date, just to keep realizing it had all been done before I was born. Now I know I could never have done what she did with this book; it is so exquisitely and densely constructed that even experts are still teasing the integrations of this brilliant mind from it, every day! What a joy for new readers and young students, who will reach so much farther than I will. Really nice job on the site. Many happy returns!

I have just recently bought my own copies of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged to keep and am rereading them, more pleased than ever as I go back and look at them with a more elaborated understanding of Ayn Rand’s philosophy now and see things even more clearly that I may have missed before or since forgotten. It was about two and a half years ago as a high school senior when I first heard of Ayn Rand when a friend pointed out some of her books to me when she saw them in the local book store. I was going to wait to read them until I could buy my own copies, seeing just how promising they sounded, but I ended up reading borrowed copies of The Fountainhead and then Atlas Shrugged a couple months later. I wasn’t disappointed with them, in fact I got the very pleasant rare surprise of having my expectations exceeded. Reading Rand’s stories, especially Atlas Shrugged, was such a gratifying experience. In them I saw many of the independent conclusions I’d drawn through my own efforts over the past several years, many of which often seemed to meet so much senseless hostility in most cases, not only being demonstrated, but filling in the gaps between them and further increasing the support for them by showing how they were all really connected and necessarily worked together. The trials and tribulations of the books characters as you see them standing up for themselves, what’s right, what’s true, what’s just no matter how much other people set against them and to come out as the champions of these things on top then, (rather inevitably in a way,) was probably more inspiring and encouraging than anything else I’d come across before. And reading that, it was so good to see that there were other people out there who understood what I did, and better even than I had. I’d seriously begun to wonder if perhaps the world at large was essentially made of almost exclusively the kind of people who had made it to some degree their purpose in life to seek to make sure that nobody would ever be able to survive and succeed who kept their sense of reason and independent self worth intact. Rand did it though, and her writing has survived and thrived. There is an audience for her out there. There is hope yet that everybody isn’t about to all get together and run themselves into the ground and out of existence. Though the good may be outnumbered, they are still most surely out there and eventually will get what they deserve.

THANK YOU for this fantastic website! I have just finished reading Atlas Shrugged and it is certainly a life changing experience!

Thanks again for this website, the background info on Atlas and Ayn Rand is very interesting!

SHRUG, ATLAS!

arby nadeau

There is a perfectionism in me, and I imagine in most of us, that quietly, secretly, but not-much-visited, feels there is a clear, clean, vibrant answer to any problem, any situation, any struggle, anything striven for. I am sure I would have given up on this naive sentiment, if not for Atlas Shrugged (and The Fountainhead). Now I have lived the rest of my life knowing that this feeling is right, never to be renounced, and kept as a standard and encouragment in the face of all the choices in life. After rigourous, detailed, and brilliant insight after insight, Atlas Shrugged (and The Fountainhead) left me with a deeply spiritual experience that guides me to this day. Life is good, I am good, to strive for my greatest ambitions is good, and I live in a world that may or may not entirely allow this possibility of complete realization, but the fundamental sense that it IS possible, and the world can be made such that it WILL be possible, is a feeling that is just and right.

Inspiring and life-changing. Every time I need cheering up, simply reading even just a short passage about Dagny, Hank or Galt is guaranteed to lift my spirits - knowing that it’s possible for people like them to exist (London, England).

Atlas Shrugged, in the person of John Galt, showed me someone who was the very best at what he chose to do. The book inspired me to do my work the best way it can be done.

My father had me read Atlas Shrugged about a year ago. I fell in love, and have been an objectivist ever since.

I first read this remarkable book in 1970, and have re-read it at least once every other year since, with plenty of browsing in between! I know the tremendous impact it can have. It offers insight into how the world works, into yourself and how you should live; all while inspiring you and entertaining you no end. I am well over 50 and I still get fresh ideas every time I pick it up (I think it keeps me fresh too).

I am smart enough to know that I am not smart enough to write down what this book means to humanity. I also know that we (as a species) are not ready, even 50 years later, to implement these ideas. “I want to take those profits and put them into an alternative energy fund that will begin to fund alternative smart energy alternatives. . .” Wesley Mouch - oops no, Hillary Clinton.

Ayn your Brilliance is more beautiful than the Sears Tower.

Love Joe

One of the few books that have stayed on my bookshelf all my adult life.

It is difficult to put into words what effect such a book has had on one’s life. We hear the “. . .it changed my life. . .” tone all the time but most simply exclaim such a statement without realizing its true impact. Atlas Shrugged struck me the moment I began reading the first line and it still has the same effect on me today as it did when I first read it some 20 years ago.

Growing up, I was constantly bombarded by the same silly notions of “collectivism” and how it is the only philosophical ideal that can propel us humans to a better future. None of it made sense to me and I often questioned “why must we adhere to such irrational set of tenets?” with no satisfying response. Reading Atlas Shrugged simply answered that (as well as many other) question(s) I had and it was the only philosophy that made any rational sense to me. As I read Galt’s speech, I was literally dumbfounded as I thought, “why we are not living the life as it ought to be (to quote Ayn Rand).”

I could write an entire essay on what Atlas Shrugged means to me (perhaps one day I will) as it is still my constant companion. Doing so however will take more room than alloted in this field so I will close by saying that a voice of reason was bourne out of chaos. Those who chose to ignore it are still deluded into a fool’s thinking (at their own peril) but for those who chose to acknowledge it, were shown a simple truth - that man truly is the hero.

Atlas Shrugged did not change my life, but it affirmed and refined, with masterly genius, the core beliefs that I have always held. It should be required reading in every high school in America.

Atlas Shrugs changed my life. It was as if I had climbed over a fence from a barren paddock and was suddenly looking out with stunning clarity towards the most beautiful, fresh, verdant, expansive pasture.

As I learn more from Rand, the fences become smaller and the expanse much vaster.

I wish so much that I could have read Atlas Shrugs during my 20’s.

Congratulations to ARI for this wonderful website and my heartfelt respect to the integrity, dedication, intellect and tenacity of the exceptionally beautiful Ayn Rand.

thank you to every man who found this worthy of its commendations.

I always knew something was wrong, I just never knew what it was. Ayn Rand’s work has influenced this aspiring writer immeasurably. It has set me free of an oppressive set of ideals and has given me the unlimited ammunition of logic to combat it, and, most importantly, to enlighten others and free them of its stranglehold.

A literary feat of genius that honors heroes first and foremost, with a hauntingly prophetic slant as socialism slides Western culture toward the abyss of annihilation. A must read for anyone who treasures the best morals of the West and desires to see them valued once more.

I had read many books in defense of Capitalism, but nothing I had read before Atlas Shrugged made such perfect sense. Nothing has ever impacted my thinking more than Ayn Rand’s genious illustration of her philosophy in this Novel. It may be one of the largest books I’ve read, but it was the most enthralling, from the first chapter to the last. Trully a MUST READ!

In my opinion, Atlas Shrugged is the greatest book ever written.

This novel has helped me realize everything that I felt throughout my life. It has helped tie every knot. It has united my life into a sum. Where I go from here depends only on the end of that sum, the cure to this world and the future that I dream about.

Reading “Atlas Shrugged” the first time (in 1964) was a monumental experience. It took me about four days to read it while working full time. By the time I finished, I was walking around like a zombie, but a far more well educated zombie. Now, 40 years later, I still reread some of my favorite sections with great pleasure and admiration for Miss Rand.

I am thrilled that a project is underway to bring the book to the screen (I hope they stay true to Objectvism and don’t “Hollywoodize”) it. As an aside, one of my former close friend’s father was the story chief at RKO and had read “AS” in the original manuscript form but turned it down, thinking that they couldn’t produce a film version of it that would do it justice. I hope he was wrong.

My first reaction to Atlas Shrugged was “she has said everything I have thought - only so intelligently and eloquently”. This book literally changed my life and continues to do so. I’m re-reading it again for the –-time. This book means everything to me. Ayn Rand’s philosophy is magnificent and yet to come in this world.

Audrey Toll, P.A.

Atlas Shrugged brought me to life. I cannot put into words what the book has meant to me. The best compliment I can pay to Atlas Shrugged is to say I recommend it to everyone I know. I tell them that their lives will be so much more rewarding after having read this wonderful novel. I cannot imagine my life without Ayn Rand and her writings.

First read the book when I is in the Army. It deeply influenced my career path.

Atlas Shrugged was and is,one of my favorites.Very important to me. I used to buy cheap copies of it at used bookstores and leave them at coffee shops around town. Classic!

Well, Ms Rand’s works stunned me when I read them first in the late 1960’s as a just “post teenager.” . . . . With the concepts of what man could be and should be, and have never since failed to stun me.

Good job. Congratulations! Thanks!

When I was younger, for instance in college, I often found myself in debates at parties or at the bar discussing heavy topics similar to the themes of Atlas Shrugged. I, like most young people, had a passion and an instinct for what was right and sensible, but putting it into a cohesive argument didn’t always happen. I too often put faith in ideas that sounded moral (and they were always simple) without understanding the long-term consequences, which, I won’t lie, I still struggle with. However, I’m glad to say that due to the exposure I’ve had to ideas of authors like Ayn Rand I have much less trouble delineating where I stand on moral issues and determining what is sensible and why. Also, I have a new appreciation for my own life and my place in life.

Ayn Rand was and is the single most eye-opening artist and thinker I’ve come across.

This is a wonderful thing that technology and a purposeful mind to guide it has allowed us to access and enjoy. Atlas Shrugged changed my life by condensing all of the diverse and previously thought to be unrelated beliefs that I had about life and how to live it into one simple and profound philosophy. I want to be one of the first to say that I am excited that Atlas Shrugged is as meaningful and powerful as the day I read it for the first time. I encourage each of you to read and make up your mind for yourself. The greatest thing that you can do for yourself is to own the gray matter between your ears and use it to accomplish everything that you can imagine. Happy 50th birthday Atlas Shrugged!

Atlas Shrugged changed my point of view about how I should live my life. It helped me to identify that a rational point of view requires a coherent, objective, rational philosophy. I was never the same after I read Atlas Shrugged, and I have Ayn Rand to thank for that. I regret only that I was not able to thank her personally.

This is a great book and a great idea to make this site. I have read Atlas Shrugged three times and it gets better - and clearer - every time. Michael Roberts www.maroberts.com

Atlas Shrugged confirmed for the idea of the individual and self reliance. It showed me new better ways to regard myself and the world around me. And it illustrated that the elements of our society that wold take away individualism and push collectivism have been around a long time and are still as strong as ever. And still need to be defeated.

So happy to see the philosophy of Rand spreading more and more.